To help pass the time, Toni Steedman created a guitar-playing dog named Raggs to entertain her daughter and friends on the one-hour drive north to Charlotte Country Day School in Charlotte, N.C.

The stories she told about Raggs quickly made her carpool rides a favorite part of the day for the kindergartners.

Now the characters who make up the hit kids television show "Raggs" have done a lot more for Ms. Steedman, a 1972 Plum High School graduate. After first emerging in Australia, the show has made it to the Public Broadcasting Service -- and into 40 percent of the media markets around the United States.

It isn't being aired on WQED in Pittsburgh yet.

Ms. Steedman (pronounced stedd-man) had thought that "Raggs" would be nothing more than a simple carpool story until one of her ad agency clients, a large regional mall, asked for an idea for a kids program. She reached into her memory bank, and the live "Raggs" format began in the malls. The rock 'n' roll-loving dog was mobbed by kids.

Raggs and the rest of the band went on tour and found a solid following among children and their parents.

The show features live, costumed characters, animated segments, interviews with kids and more than 200 music videos.

Ms. Steedman went to Nickelodeon, which was impressed with the way the characters resonated with children, but with more than 100 projects in production, that cable channel told her "Raggs" might get stuck on the shelf.

Undeterred, Ms. Steedman took her show to Sydney, Australia, where she teamed with Southern Star International to produce the show with some of the top talent in children's television.

On that trip, "Raggs" overcame another hurdle: A broadcaster was found. Seven Network ordered 65 episodes right away.

"Very often, people get an idea together for a show and get into production, but they can't get a broadcaster," said Ms. Steedman, who grew up in the East Oakmont section of Plum. "It can be a great show, but it sits on the shelves.

"That's where we turned the corner from the other properties."

"Raggs" went on the air in Australia in January 2006. Three months later, 65 more episodes were ordered.

In 14 weeks, she said, it took more than half of the market share in its time slot. And just when the staff was catching up on its sleep, another 65 episodes were ordered, putting the total at 195s.

The success of the show is surprising, considering it was independently developed rather than produced through Nickelodeon or Disney. "Raggs" is educational in format and aimed at children about 3 to 6 years old.

"It has not been an easy journey," Ms. Steedman said. "It has been a major undertaking that has been all-consuming.

"We haven't had much time to sit on the sideline to watch. This is an interesting industry. The kids industry is very small in the sense that there are only a few players and it's very consolidated.

"For an independent to come up this way is almost unheard of. No one has done it this way since 'Barney.' "

With production split between Australia and Charlotte, "Raggs" is a round-the-clock venture. Ms. Steedman has her music team in Charlotte, and through the Internet, they dub the music into the picture being shot in Australia.

It has been a 15-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week job for Ms. Steedman. She is on call until midnight at times, as the different time zones in which the show airs make it more demanding.

Right after graduating from West Virginia University in 1976, Ms. Steedman started working at a Pittsburgh ad agency, Kahn and Wallin.

She moved to Charlotte in 1980 and started her own agency, Steedman and Wilson, which became successful and was featured in Business Week.

With "Raggs" demanding more time, Ms. Steedman had to make a career decision in 2002. She chose "Raggs" and sold her ad agency.

"I knew I was going to have a rough road for a couple of years," she said, "and my dear father said if you don't pick up a bat and swing, you'll never know.

"It was quite a commitment to give up the business I had worked to build and hunker down with a smaller business."

There were times when funding was an issue and Ms. Steedman had a hard time bringing in investors. She sold her pitch to about 700 investors and came away with 70 positive responses.

Between 2002 and 2005, there were times when the company was flat broke.

"When you take on this kind of a challenge, you have to be aware that at some point you might have to give up the dream," Ms. Steedman said. "But until that point, you can not ever waffle.

"When we would start to doubt whether we could really pull this off, we reminded ourselves of how the kids reacted to the live shows and that lightning in the bottle we had. It's a very intangible kind of thing that hits the nerve of the public at the right time, and that's finally what happened to 'Raggs.' "

The live show has been well received by parents and kids. In Oyster Bay, Long Island, 8,000 fans turned out for a live performance by Raggs and his four band mates.

The show is set to air in 10 countries, including Singapore, South Africa, Ireland, Israel, Bulgaria, Greece and Iceland.

All three PBS stations in Charlotte carry the show, along with KQED in San Francisco, the first station in the country to air "Raggs" -- and one of the nation's most watched public broadcaster.

Ms. Steedman would like to see the PBS channel in her hometown join in.

"Absolutely," she said, "I would like WQED to seriously consider the show because of the merits and because I have a personal pride in wanting my hometown to carry the show."

Her parents, David and Edna Kasmoch, no longer live in East Oakmont, having relocated to Emlenton in Venango County.

More than 200 people work on the show -- on the production teams, and the singing and character voices for the different languages the show is broadcast in.

Sholly Fisch, Ph.D, a former vice president of program research at Sesame Workshop, is in charge of the educational content of "Raggs."

"The show has surrounded itself with the most wonderful, passionate and caring people," Ms. Steedman said. "No one watches the clock at this job. We are very fortunate to have them."

The Raggs Dance Party live concert tour is expected to come to the Pittsburgh area in July.

For more information about the show and its characters, visit raggs.com.